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Earl Albert Moore was plagued by money problems when he fumbled two crimes and landed in federal prison for more than six years, according to court records, interviews and news accounts.

Moore, 65, is suspected of planting a crude explosive device inside a Jefferson County mall last week, and is now the subject of a nationwide manhunt.

The incident at Southwest Plaza occurred one week after Moore was released from federal prison in Georgia, and about four miles from the Denver apartment where he lived for several years before his 2005 arrest for bank robbery.

Authorities have searched all of Moore’s former addresses in Colorado and have spoken with distant relatives, but they have no confirmed sightings since Moore was seen at the mall last Wednesday, FBI Spokesman Dave Joly said today.

Denver County court records show the owners of The Pines apartments near Quincy Avenue and South Sheridan Boulevard filed in court to evict Moore and a female relative in October 2004 for failure to pay rent. Moore had lived in the apartment for about four years, according to public record searches.

Two banks also had filed civil actions against Moore, saying he owed them more than $10,000.

In March 2004, Moore was arrested for theft and possession of burglary tools after a Costco security guard saw him slitting open boxes and shoving merchandise in his coat.

According to police reports, when an officer arrived at the store on South Havana Street he found 24 computer storage discs worth $1,560 inside the lining of Moore’s coat.

Moore, who also was carrying a small knife, told the officer “I did it. I got caught,” according to the report.

That summer Moore agreed to a plea deal in which he would receive two years probation. But he failed to show up for his September 2004 sentencing.

A warrant was still out for his arrest when he walked into a bank in Crab Orchard, West Virginia, in March 2005 waved a gun, and fled with $2,546, according to court records.

Police arrested him about 10 minutes later, after Moore walked into a nearby convenience store and a clerk noticed red dye on his hands from the dye packs the bank had included with the money, according to a story from The Register-Herald in Beckley, West Virginia.

Moore had used makeup to paint on a fake beard, and crashed his getaway car into a snowbank about a half mile away from the bank. Police found the money in the trunk of his car.

A bank employee said this morning that Moore told officers at the time that he needed to rob the bank because his wife was dying from cancer, but it was unclear whether that story ever was confirmed.

Moore was sentenced to 18 years in federal prison, but his sentence was reduced to seven years after he assisted prosecutors with information on another case, according to court records. He spent most of that time at a medium-security prision in South Carolina.

He had a previous conviction for larceny in El Paso County in 1998. That case also involved a rental property, court records show.

In 2010, the Colorado Department of Revenue also filed a civil case against Moore, saying he owed the state $2,819.

They believe he returned to the area around 11:30 a.m. on Wednesday, placed two propane tanks and a makeshift pipebomb in a hallway used mostly by mall employees, and then started a fire.

A mall employee noticed the fire and a security guard was able to extinguish it before firefighters arrived. No one was hurt.

Investigators are looking for a motive after 10 unexploded homemade bombs were thrown through the windows of an Englewood cell phone store.

Detectives are eager to find a motive and make an arrest, said Officer Scott Allen, a spokesman for Englewood police said.

The owner of the store knew of no one who might be a suspect, Allen said, and investigators aren’t sure what time the bombs were thrown overnight.

“The owner got a call from someone else who works in the strip mall about 7 this morning. They told him his front and back windows were broken out,” Allen said. “The owner went inside and saw the incendiary devices, backed out the door.”

The Arapahoe County Bomb Squad collected the unexploded bombs and evacuated nearby stores in the strip mall on South Santa Fe Circle, off South Santa Fe Drive south of West Union Avenue.

Other than several broken windows, the damage to the store was minimal.

Other than characterizing the bombs as similar to Molotov cocktails — cheaply made improvised explosive devices usually fashioned from a container of flammable liquid — authorities aren’t being specific about how the bombs were made or what type fuel was used.

“That’s all part of the investigation at this point, so were not able to release that,” Allen explained.

Agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives joined the investigation this afternoon, though the case is currently being investigated as a criminal mischief pending more information, Allen said.

“At this point, we don’t have any suspects,” he said. “We don’t know what their motive was, so it’s very important that we find out who’s responsible for this.”

More than a half dozen homemade explosives were recovered Wednesday afternoon and early today by the Boulder County Sheriff’s Office in Boulder County’s Somerset subdivision.

This follows an incident earlier in the week in which a resident in the 7800 block of Durham in the Heatherwood subdivision reported hearing an explosion.

The next morning, an explosive device was recovered.

An earlier incident occurred on July 1 when someone threw one of the homemade devices from a pickup truck and a bystander kicked it, causing it to explode.

Boulder County Sheriff Commander Rick Brough said all the devices are similar.

They are 12-to-16 ounce capped plastic bottles that contain a liquid chemical and aluminum foil.

In the latest incidents, Brough said deputies went to the Somerset subdivision swimming pool about 3 p.m. Wednesday on a report of a suspicious container.

Brough said the deputies found the remnants of four explosive devices – plastic bottles that had erupted – in the area around the pool, tennis courts and in an adjacent field.

He said one of the devices was thrown into the pool house where it exploded, causing about $1,000 in damage.

About 12:50 a.m. today, a deputy patrolling the subdivision located three more explosive devices in the same area.

Brough said that because of the multiple incidents involving the exploding bottles, the public needs to be cautious. The chemical reaction in the bottles produces hydrogen gas which is flammable, said Brough.

Two incidents involving “exploding homemade devices” has caused the Boulder County Sheriff to warn county residents to be on the lookout for suspicious containers.

The most recent incident occurred late Monday night when a resident in the 7800 block of Durham Way in the Heatherwood subdivision reported hearing an explosion.

Tuesday morning, a ruptured plastic bottle with its lid intact was found near the location of the explosion reported at 11:30 p.m. Tuesday.

The sheriff’s office said that the bottle had been ruptured from some type of an explosion.

An additional search of the subdivision by sheriff’s deputies failed to find any additional devices.

Sheriff’s Commander Rick Brough said that at 8 p.m. on July 1, a plastic bottle was thrown from a black Chevrolet pickup at the intersection of Pawnee and Longview Drive in the Morton Heights subdivision in Niwot.

When a witness kicked the bottle, it exploded, said Brough. Neither the person kicking the bottle nor a second person standing nearby were injured.

Brough said the bottle contained chemicals that when combined created an explosion.

Brough said the Boulder Sheriff’s Office is warning the public of the two incidents because of the dangers involved.

In both Monday night’s incident, and the one in July, the devices were 12-16 ounce capped plastic bottles that contained a liquid chemical and aluminum foil.

Citizens are being cautioned against picking up suspicious containers that are found in their mailboxes, the street or on their lawns.

DURANGO – Bomb threats against a number of public buildings in La Plata County on Wednesday morning has forced authorities to require several evacuations.

Durango Police say its dispatch received an anonymous bomb threat against the courthouse, Fort Lewis College, Miller Middle School and Durango High School just before 10 a.m.

Local law enforcement is working to conduct searches of each building, however, because no specific name was given for the courthouse, police have notified all judicial buildings in the area.

The Durango School District evacuated Miller Middle School students and Durango High School students to safe off-campus locations. Parents were able to pick up their children with proper identification.

All other schools in the district were put into a soft lockdown, meaning external doors were locked.

The campus at Fort Lewis College was evacuated as well and planned to remain closed for the day.